Thermally conductive carbon filled nylon 6,6

Increasing the thermal conductivity of typically insulating polymers, such as nylon 6,6, opens new markets. A thermally conductive resin can be used for heat sink applications. This research focused on performing compounding runs followed by injection molding and through-plane thermal conductivity testing of carbon filled nylon 6,6 based resins. The three carbon fillers investigated included an electrically conductive carbon black, synthetic graphite particles, and a surface treated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) based carbon fiber. Conductive resins were produced and tested that contained varying amounts of these single carbon fillers. In addition, combinations of fillers were investigated by conducting a full 2(3) factorial design and a complete replicate. The objective of this paper was to determine the effects and interactions of each filler on the thermal conductivity of the resins. Synthetic graphite particles caused the largest increase in composite thermal conductivity. In addition, all the single fillers and combinations of fillers caused a statistically significant (at the 95% confidence level) increase in composite thermal conductivity.